All posts filed under: Series

The Art of Balance: Creativity and Your Day-Job

Published by Osemhen

My friend, Ozoz, is a phenomenon. She’s a geologist, a blogger, a recipe creator, a “traveller by plate”, a photographer and a cook. She’s also a mom. She’s  given a TedTalk, appeared on TV a few times, held a photography exhibition and recently collaborated on #TechmeetsArtng. I, on the other hand, struggle with staying awake long enough to update my blog. Forget work-life balance. I’m not even sure what that is. I think about this often: how to balance my day-job with my creative life, my social obligations, my family life, my spiritual life …and a need to sleep. Sleep is winning, I must admit. Someone commented once that she’s not sure how I do everything. The truth is, I don’t. Some days, I should be writing and I just want to bake chocolate chip cookies instead. So I bake the cookies and eat them as I mindlessly scroll through Pinterest and Twitter. I console myself with this TedTalk by Nigel Marsh. I’ve listed it in my post on the  5 TedTalks Every Young Professional …

Nigerian Blogs I Love: Ihunda’s Musings

Published by Osemhen

One of my blog resolutions is to share bloggers I love with my readers. I think it’s important for you to know there are so many good bloggers out there.  I don’t remember exactly when I started following Afoma’s blog and Instagram feed. Right now, it feels like a long time ago. What delights me about her photographs? The colors, maybe. The charm she captures…the details. Her mindfulness (something I’ve been working on forever). We share a fondness for H&M blouses. And I must admit to a slight envy. Of her talent with the camera and the fact that she goes to school on a beautiful island.  And yes, she’s a student. A medical student. How cool is that?  Describe your blog with five words. Personal. Inspiring. Delightful. Happy place. Why did you start your blog? I was in dire need of self-expression. I was 16 and tired of talking to myself constantly (which I still do). I somehow caught the oversharing bug before I even knew it was a thing. If you look back …

Eurekanaija 2015 in review

Published by Osemhen

Hello, guys. So 2015 was a good year. I was genuinely and pleasantly surprised by the number of views I got. Thank you all for sharing this blog with your friends, for reading, for commenting, for liking. Thank you for all the love. I’m currently restrategizing for next year. I’m owing blog posts (I know!) and I really want to host at least one face-to-face event and proper giveaways. I’m also looking forward to doing collaborations with my favorite bloggers so look out, world! Your feedback is invaluable. I really need you to tell me what you’d like to see more of (or not!). So please, get in touch with the form here. Tell me what I should keep doing, start doing or stop doing. What would make you read this blog more? What would make you comment more? What would make you share posts from this blog with your friends? This is really important to me. In fact, it’s so important that I’m going to tie my first giveaway to this. Three people will …

Internet Shopping in Nigeria: The Good, Bad and Ugly

Published by Osemhen

So I’m very lazy when it comes to shopping. (The husband would disagree but it’s true. Lol.) I love shopping online. It’s so…precise. I want x, I google whether someone sells it online in Nigeria, I make it happen. Clothes, I’ll google. Beauty products, I’ll google. Food items, Google! Even if they don’t sell online, simply confirming that they have what I want is enough for me. So if their Facebook page has a contact number, I’ll call first before I make the journey to their shop. That said, a few weeks ago, I had a bad experience. I needed an outfit urgently for an event happening a week later in Lagos. I wasn’t in Lagos, and my usual tailor is the kind that simply cannot meet a deadline so tight. I needed someone to buy fabric of a particular hue and then sew it based on my measurements. I turned to the internet, specifically to Instagram. I have a few friends who make outfits often so I reached out to a vendor one of them …

The 3 Types of Morning

Published by Osemhen

The Perfect Morning Wake at 4:00 am. Wash face. Study till 5:00 am. At 5:00 am Read Bible. Read Mass Readings. Meditate. At 5:30, change into sneakers and workout pants. Go for morning walk/run. At 6 am, shower. At 6:30 am, review work plan for the day. At. 6:40 am, sit down to “fit-fam” breakfast of oatmeal, boiled eggs and one slice of bread. At 7:00 am, brew first cup of coffee and start the day with morning meeting. The Imperfect Morning. Snooze alarm till 5:15 am. Wash face. Read Bible. Read mass readings. Meditate and say a vocal prayer (just in case you don’t get time to say it later.) At 5:45 change into work out clothes. Notice slight cramp in right part of abdomen. Debate the wisdom of running/walking around till it goes away. Decide to do simple, non-calorie burning stretches. At 6:00 am, check Whatsapp messages. At. 6:15, shower. At 6:50 sit down to breakfast and scoff down (fat-fam!) fried plantain and scrambled eggs to beat the 7 am deadline. Wrap a slice of …

Funny What Google Sends My Way

Published by Osemhen

Some of you visited my blog because you Googled “how to sacrifice to Amadioha”. Why? Why do you want to sacrifice to Amadioha? And why do you think you’ll get answers on the Google? And would you really go ahead to make a sacrifice to Amadioha with instructions you got from Google?

On Writivism, A Great Book I Read, Klo5 and Holiday Season in Nigeria

Published by Osemhen

I’ve meant to blog about this for a while but I kept losing my drafts… Super late, I know but our Pemi won the Writivism Prize 2015! I say our Pemi because she’s ours… Lol. I’m not famzing, I promise. We’ve shared a bed (now I sound like I’m famzing). Anyhow, I’m super-pleased for her, and slightly envious that she got to go on holiday to Uganda as part of making the Writivism shortlist. And now I want to write more stories, so I can enter competitions that allow me go on holidays. Have you read Pemi’s deliciously scary story? Have you checked out the super-cool blog, Nik-Nak.co she collaborates on? Thank me later! I got this amazing book, The Art of Possibility by Ben and Roz Sander, a year ago from Ozoz of kitchenbutterfly.com fame. It’s slightly strange in that it’s not your typical self-help book. It’s not teaching you how to be the best XYZ but how to get to a point where being the best XYZ doesn’t matter. Here’s an example of one of …

The 21-Day Gratitude Challenge

Published by Osemhen

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLJsdqxnZb0] We like to think that we’d be happier if we were richer, better-looking, taller, thinner, fatter, married, single, (had more fuel in our tanks), American, British, more successful…  Shawn Achor (see TedTalk above) says that it’s actually the other way round. If you’re happy, then you can perform better. I’ll take it a step further and add that happiness isn’t pleasure. Happiness is a decision. It’s less effervescent than joy, it’s deeper than pleasure. It’s a state of mind, of being. And luckily, that state of mind can be cultivated. I’d like to invite you to do the 21-Day Gratitude Challenge. Everyday, for 21 days, do at least two of the following: Write down 3 things you’re grateful for. (You survived the heat last night) Write down one positive experience you’ve had in the last 24 hours (trying to get past the 6-hour long queue for fuel) Write a thank you note (or email) to someone in your social support system (e.g. The fuel station attendant who alerted you when they started selling) Meditate …

Why The Presidential Elections Don't Matter As Much As You Think

Published by Osemhen

   The short answer: because this is a democracy. The long answer: because this is a democracy and not a monarchy and there are multiple arms of government. Let me paint a picture for you, citizens. Let’s take road building and creation. You want good roads. The President does not fix roads. But let’s say he makes that a priority. He selects a minister to head the Ministry of Works and submits this person’s name to the NASS for screening and approval. Simple enough, right? But what if he nominates an incompetent, dishonest person? Well, that’s why your Senate screens and approves. If they let an incompetent person slip through, they have failed you. You should call them out on it. Let’s assume that the minister starts out good and then turns bad later on. They give him a budget and he shares it via dud contracts to his cronies. What happens? Well, your Senate can summon him to defend his job. If investigations prove it, he should be fired, arrested and tried in a …